Gary Speed - RIP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59OJ17raqWw

but do you not see, if people like you go around those calling people who commit suicide who had issues a disgrace, it further vilifies and makes it a closed shop, so those who are thinking about it dont seek help, because of the attitude that they are a disgrace and they shouldnt even be contemplating something like it. this attitude that people who commit suicide are an embaressment and a disgrace is what keeps mental health issues and suicide such a taboo subject here. I’m not saying to come out and glorify Speed, just that instead of knocking him, it should be shown how it was a sad incident and one that could be prevented with the proper help.

+1

Thanks chewy louie, I was hoping someone with a few actual stats might join the debate!

I’m not directly linking to character, but in certain cases when someone has taken their life due to a tragic happening in their life, I feel that this generation is not able to handle that as well as previous generations. Mainly due to the upbringing and obviously the different societal backgrounds at the time.

I’d imagine the extremely low social status of travellers plays at least some part here. A huge proportion of suicides are at root about personal feelings of inadequacy or an absence of self worth. It irritates me no end when people say “When people want to kill themselves why don’t they just leave everything and go wherever they want, they have nothing to lose etc…”

They don’t go somewhere else because they don’t want to live with themselves anymore and that’s something they can never change. Suicide becomes the one weapon they’ve left against their own powerlessness.

That about sums it up. Talking about it more doesn’t just mean saying anything you like about it. It means making it easier for those thinking about doing it to talk to people more than anything. To let them know other people are thinking like them and that they can be helped.

I feel like listening to a lot of Morrissey this evening.

Read much Sartre in uni mate.

UCD report on suicide:
http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/wp10_35.pdf

I’m not making points regard societal upbringings, I’m making towards generational upbringings. People of a lower class background clearly have more disillusioning factors that will influence on their happiness.

Agreed. As you say self worth has a lot to do with it.suicide affects every section of modern Irish society.

So basically you were saying people are more likely to commit suicide nowadays than they were before. I agree. Try to be a bit more clear in future we’ll save ourselves a lot of time.

It is awful. He must have been in a very dark place. Pity he wasn’t able to talk to someone about how he was feeling.

According to the UCD report the rate of suicide in Ireland jumped from 8 per 100,000 of the population aged 15 and over to 21 suicides per 100,000 in 2009.

The number of officially reported suicides in Ireland fell from 527 in 2009 to 486 in 2010.

FFS. Don’t blame me because you can’t comprehend things and then go around throwing all sorts of labels. At no point did I make any reference to it being a class problem. That was something you invented yourself and it’s in even poorer taste that not only do you refuse to apologise, but pass the buck.

Would certain factors like the recession and emigration have had an effect on these numbers Sid.

After a quick Google it seems the suicide rates amongst Travellers are anywhere between 3 and 7 times the rate of suicide amongst the settled community, according to various studies. That’s an incredibly high rate, even at the low end.

[quote=“Mr. Totti, post: 637219”]

Would certain factors like the recession and emigration have had an effect on these numbers Sid.
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[font=“Cambria”][size=“3”][font=“Cambria”][size=“3”]continuing fall in alcohol consumption. Some policy implications of the findings are discussed.[/size][/font][/size][/font][/left]

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Discrimination and associated esteem issues would id imagine be a big contributory factor here. In addition, traveller men would probably not be great at communicating worries/issues as this may be perceived as weakness in their community. Thus they may be more inclined to bottle things up.